Rumgumption

A Capital Ship

Words: Charles Edward Carryl
Tune: Shawn McBurnie

A capital ship for an ocean trip
Was the Walloping Window Blind
No wind that blew dismayed her crew
Nor troubled the captain's mind
The man at the wheel was made to feel
Contempt for the wildest blow
Though it often appeared when the gale had cleared
That he'd been in the bunk below

The boatswain's mate was very sedate
Yet fond of amusement too
For he played hopscotch with the starboard watch
While the captain tickled his crew
And the gunner we had was apparently mad
For he sat on the after-rail
And fired salutes with the captain's boots
In the teeth of a booming gale

Then blow, ye winds, heigh-ho
A-roving I will go
I'll stay no more on England's shore
So let the music play
I'll cross the roaring main
I'll catch the morning train
I'm off to my love with a boxing glove,
Ten thousand miles away

The captain sat on the commodore's hat
And dined in a royal way,
Off toasted pigs and pickles and figs
And gunnery bread each day
And the cook he was Dutch and behaved as such
For the diet he fed the crew
Was a couple of tons of hot cross buns
Served up with sugar and glue

Then blow, ye winds, heigh-ho
A-roving I will go
I'll stay no more on England's shore
So let the music play
I'll cross the roaring main
I'll catch the morning train
I'm off to my love with a boxing glove,
Ten thousand miles away

Then we all fell ill as mariners will
On a diet that's coarse and rude
And we shivered and shook as we dipped the cook
In a tub of his gluesome food.
All nautical pride we laid aside,
And we ran the vessel ashore
On the Gulliby Isles where the pooh-pooh smiles,
And the rubbly updugs roar

Composed of sand was that favored land
And decked round with cinnamon straws
And pink and blue was the pleasing hue
Of the tickle-toe-teaser's claws
And we sat on the edge of a sandy ledge
And shot at the whistling bee
And the rugabug bats wore waterproof hats
As they dipped in the shining sea

On rugabug bark from dawn till dark
We dined till we all had grown
Uncommonly shrunk when a Chinese junk
Came up from the Torrible Zone
She was chubby and square, but we didn't much care
So we cheerily put to sea
And we left all the crew of the junk to chew
On the bark of the rugabug tree!

Lyrics and Notes

A Capital Ship